Without calling on the spirits of the departed for aid, without mesmerism and without the use of medicines of any kind, he succeeded in completely restoring the muscles of my side and leg to their proper functions, and I am now as well as ever. I visited Dr. Quimby under the impression that he was some mysterious personage who had acquired a great reputation for curing diseases, and who must exercise some kind of mesmeric control over the will and imagination of his patients. But I am convinced that he is a skilful physician, whose cures are not the result of accident, but of a thorough knowledge and application of correct curative principles.”[1]
[It is interesting, also, to note the zeal with which some took up the idea of absent treatment as a perfectly intelligible process in contrast with the difficult explanation offered by spiritists. The following is from a communication addressed to the editor of the Courier by a writer who signs himself, C. C. Whitney:]
“As spiritualism seems to be to many the only way of accounting for all phenomena of the present day, I thought it might be of some interest to your readers to state a case that came under my own observation, and I will leave the public to judge of the manner in which it was done.
“Two years ago last March, I sent to Dr. Quimby to visit my wife, then living in Wayne, in this state, who had been confined to her bed for over a year, and unable to lie on her left side, or raise herself in bed.
“The Doctor replied that he could not visit her in person, but would try an experiment, and wished me to keep him informed of his success. His plan was that on my receiving his letter he would commence to operate on her [absently,] and continue his visits till the next Sunday, when he would, between the hours of 11 and 12, make her walk. I received this letter Wednesday, and that night she was very uneasy and nervous, and the next day, Thursday, she was more
- ↑ What most impressed people who, like Capt. Deering, supposed Quimby would undertake to exercise some mesmeric control over their wills, was the fact that after making his intuitive diagnosis and giving his silent treatment he would put his patients in command of the curative principle and aid them to help themselves the first moment possible. This convinced them that he was no charlatan but a genuine friend to the sick.
